6950 upgrade - crossfire or new card?

[Asa]

Hi,

I've been happily playing games on a stock 6950 for a while, and it coped with everything I threw at it. I've recently started playing on a 3DTV and the card is feeling the strain.

I was thinking a 2nd 6950 might be a cheap way to solve this one, but when I factor in a new power supply it's not so far off a new card. What's the better option?

Running:
i7-3820
16gb RAM
Couple of SSDs and a Xonar D2
650W PSU

Because of the limitations of my plasma screen I'm only looking to hit 30fps at 1080p stereoscopic, but I want to hit that consistently without compromising settings on the likes of GW2.

Thanks!

 

[arc@css]

What's the brand of your psu?

 

[mickyflinn]

Which single card are you looking at ?

 

[Asa]

Double post

 

[Asa]

I'll have to get back to you on the PSU, but I'm 90% certain it's not good enough. Even if it has the umph it wont have the 6 PIN connectors.

I'm looking at price range more than a specific card, £150-250 ish. Maybe a bit more if I see value in it but cheaper is better right now. It'll probably be a month or 2 before I buy too, if there is anything new on the horizon...

 

[tommybhoy]

Nothing for the price you want to pay will give you any better performance in 3D, unless you go 7950+ or stick in another 6950, but CrossFire isn't as simple as that, I have had no problems but plenty do have problems with dual cards(AMD+Nvidia).

What games are you playing on 3D and I presume your using Tridef and running SBS?

Do you know AA should be off for 3D(improves performance)?

What 6950 do you have?

Have you tried oc'ing it to 900-950MHz/1300MHz?

What psu do you have as 6950 CrossFire should be fine on a branded 650W psu.

I'm currently only using 1 6950>70 with a 9800 for Hybrid PhysX and playing Alan Wake(haven't tried most of the titles in my list though) and it's running nice on FS@120Hz(no 30fps cap), what needs more oomph that your playing?


I found some of my posts and despite being messy, here is some info about various titles I've played in 3D(Tridef) with 6950>70 CrossFire:

• 1. BF3(not launched via tridef, 3D applied directly within the game), very disappointing, thought it would be much, much better, especially compared with the effects on other titles, quite a performance hit too!
  
  edit***BF3 looks much better using Tridef than the in game setting that I used above and Crysis shimmering was caused by a setting in Tridef that you can switch off, was a bit of a 3D noob back then.***
  
  2. L4D2, incredible 3D effect, the best use of 3D of all the games I tried, imo the overall depth, looking into the distance is incredible.
  
  3. Skyrim, stunning 2nd best looking title for me absolutely fantastic.
  
  4. Deuss Ex(not launched via tridef, 3D applied directly within the game), it's ok, but nothing special.
  
  edit***bit better using Tridef as well***
  
  5. BAC, fantastic, not much of a performance hit and Bats looks incredible when you pan the camera around him it has to be seen to take it in.
  
  6. Dead Space 2, fantastic.
  
  7. Bulletstorm, very immersive.
  
  8. ME3, good looking and lots of depth.
  
  9. F3 NV, great looking.
  
  10. Dirt 3, (not launched via tridef, 3D applied directly within the game) disappointing as I heard it was very impressive, maybe expected too much.
  
  edit***between going in the cockpit and using Tridef it's much better***
  
  11. Portal 2, looks great but I was getting a huge performance hit.
  
  edit***Switched off CrossFire, fps literally went through the roof***
  
  12. Crysis 2, fantastic, not much of a hit.
  
  edit***you can edit the config to enable ingame SBS 3D, it doesn't look as good as Tridef, but performance goes up***
  
  13. Crysis, sore on the senses, it looks great, but I was getting a shimmering effect, maybe have to play about with the settings and there is a considerable performance hit too.
  
  edit***fixed the shimmering by disabling power 3D in Tridef and fps increased too, now I know what I'm doing with Tridef, I was a Tridef noob back then***
  
  
  14. Alan Wake/American Nightmare is absolutely stunning in all the fog, what's surprising though for me is AW needs CrossFire disabled to get good performance, where as AM has mental CrossFire performance in 3D despite both using the same CrossFire/Tridef profiles.
  
  15. NFS the run better than Dirt 3's built in 3D(but again like BF3, Dirt 3 looks better using Tridef).
  
  16. BAA, much the same as BAA.
  
  17. MP3 is not too shabby but the colours look a bit washed out for me, you should get a better result on Nvidia I imagine as it's only running on the Beta Tridef.
  
  18. The Darkness 2 gets the thumbs up as well.
  
  19. Diablo 3 looks fantastic, but it's not my cup of tea.
  
  20. Trine is magical.
  
  21. DAII, not too shabby either.
  
  Generally, Unreal Engine games look the part in 3D.
  
  Bulletstorm(very surprisingly) really blew me away in 3D tbh, played it for a level or two in 2D, put it down and walked away but it really comes into it's own in 3D, felt like a kid again, ducking out the road of stuff and actually trying to peek round corners(obviously you can't, but your brain tells you otherwise), really can't rate it enough in 3D.
  
  If you are into Skyrim, well it's in a different league folks, especially highly moded with various texture packs, walking about in a snow storm is something else.

As your going to be limited to 30 fps, play about with in game settings before jumping into an upgrade, after trying out a 7970 WF, a single gpu gives better performance for some titles I used, but I couldn't justify £335 over my current setup for just a few titles.

 

[Asa]

Thanks for the efforts there, much appreciated.

I'm using Tridef (and I'm a bit of a tridef noob, but that's a whole 'nother topic )

I do not use AA, but otherwise try to crank up any settings that do not artifact.

-WoW locks at 30fps except in raids, dabbling in the "current" 25man content it chugs at about 15fps in places.
-Rift runs at 20-25 in the open, would probably fall over in a raid
-Saints Row 3rd was pretty much unplayable, had to lower the resolution there and even then it I couldn't scope.
-Batman AA seems adequate
-Left4Dead2 ran well (and is my current game of choice to show off 3D).
-Skyrim seemed smooth enough with no mods, but I didn't test it thoroughly because the bloom makes my eyes bleed.

The main issue is I'm an MMORPG junky, so Rift/Guild Wars 2 and possibly even WoW raids are my bread and 15fps butter.

I could possibly get a crossfire setup going cheaply if the 650w PSU can cope. It is branded, but the lack of PCI-E connectors is a problem. Are molex->6pin converters advisable?

 

[tommybhoy]

Have you played about with 'Power 3D' in Tridef?

Sometimes it can boost your fps by a fair bit, but other times it looks horrible/doesn't work.

I don't have a clue whether CrossFire works in any of the mmo's you listed, you should check that out first, don't play any mmo's myself but afaik, they are very cpu dependant, do you have any oc's on the 6950/cpu?

Be aware that some titles don't like 3D at all in CrossFire.

An Antec 650W true power psu ran my 6950>70's before I got a 760W Seasonic, what's the model you have?

 

[Asa]

I tried power 3d on a few titles, but I didn't like it much.

MMORPGs are indeed CPU dependent, and I hear Tridef can be too but overclocking from 3.6 to 4.4 made no real difference so I've reverted that for now.

I haven't dabbled with overclocking the graphics card as I consider them quite fragile, and I can't afford any more casualties.

I'm not home to check models, but the graphics card is Sapphire's baseline 6950 and I think the PSU is Cooler Master.

 

[tommybhoy]

I tried power 3d on a few titles, but I didn't like it much.

The effect can be reduced, a happy medium can be found, play about with settings(Numpad 0, leave it open ingame and tinker), just take note of what the values are before you change them

MMORPGs are indeed CPU dependent, and I hear Tridef can be too but overclocking from 3.6 to 4.4 made no real difference so I've reverted that for now.

I haven't dabbled with overclocking the graphics card as I consider them quite fragile, and I can't afford any more casualties.

I would be very surprised if your gpu can't hit 900MHz without remotely stressing it out, it's the exact same chip that's on the 6970's(880MHz), leave the vram@stock if your worried, it would be the first to break.

I'm not home to check models, but the graphics card is Sapphire's baseline 6950 and I think the PSU is Cooler Master.

If the gpu is the reference 6950 unlock it to 6970 shaders(not the full fat 6970 unlock though), 2-5 fps could be had, every little helps.

There is a huge sticky on it at the top of the gfx section.